The bankers rejoiced at the manna raining down on their heads, falling from the hands of Orrin Hatch and Joe Biden and all those courageous Senators who overcame partisanship to join hands. They overcame dirty populists like Ted Kennedy to help the poor, suffering bankers and credit card companies who made the mistake of extending credit and giving loans to people who clearly couldn't manage their money ...
The bankruptcy bill passed. After a little research, we learned that business interests have been trying to get the bill through for eight years. Now, maybe the bill didn't go through, and maybe Clinton vetoed it because IT WAS A BAD IDEA.
In yesterday's Congressional Record, Orrin Hatch griped about how it took eight years to get the bill passed. He also made it seem that the Republicans were the picture of compromise in that time: "We held our first meeting on this in a Judiciary subcommittee in 1998. I want to make sure everyone heard that right: 1998. Early on, the good-faith compromises began ... We prevented creditors from demanding repayment for debts incurred through predatory lending practices [oh, yeah? when?] ... All of these were amendments from my Democratic colleagues. I could go through dozens of others. "
Leave it to a Republican to paint villains as victims. So the credit card companies had to wait eight years to get their stinking bill. Cry us a river, Hatch.
Let's translate Hatch, shall we? What he said above boils down to "you are lucky it wasn't worse. We could have been rough on you!"
Yet again, the masses should be grateful that the senate threw them a few bones. Oh, please, more crumbs, Senator Hatch!